Objective:
The objective is to identify the regions of the soybean genome that have been changed or retained through 30 years of selection for yield in a set of 140 high yielding soybean lines that have been developed using germplasm accessions that are distinct from the set of accessions that form the genetic base of currently grown U.S. soybean varieties.

Approach:
The 50,000 Illumina iSelect Beadchip developed at the USDA, Beltsville will be used to characterize 140 high yielding experimental lines that produce yields equal to or superior to currently grown U.S. soybean varieties. Using these data from the 50,000 Illumina iSelect SNPs we will determine the genomic changes that have occurred by tracking the regions of the genome that have been changed or retained through 3 decades of selection via a comparison with the 54 exotic accessions that were used as parents and that have already been genetically analyzed as part of an ongoing United Soybean Board funded project that has used the 50,000 SNP Illumina Beadchip to characterize the entire USDA Soybean Germplasm Collection.